


if daddy had only seen

by flusteredkeith (the_silverdoe), the_silverdoe



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (for half of it), Based on the song 'I saw mommy kissing Santa Claus', Christmas Fluff, Domestic Fluff, Humor, M/M, Misunderstandings, POV Outsider, Second-Hand Embarrassment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-15
Updated: 2017-12-15
Packaged: 2019-02-15 00:51:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13019802
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_silverdoe/pseuds/flusteredkeith, https://archiveofourown.org/users/the_silverdoe/pseuds/the_silverdoe
Summary: Kana catches Keith kissing Santa Claus. Keith and Shiro have to explain themselves.“So… where were we?”Poking her head around the corner, she looks out towards the living room and—Her jaw drops. She can hardly believe her eyes. There in the middle of the living room, right beneath the mistletoe Papashi had put up two weeks ago, stands Daddy with his arms wrapped tightly aroundSanta Claus.She clamps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from shrieking with laughter. Daddy tilts his head up and leans in.No.Way.





	if daddy had only seen

**Author's Note:**

> I was listening to "I saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus" and came up with this [fic idea](http://flusteredkeith.tumblr.com/post/167958280894/sheith-i-saw-daddy-kissing-santa-clause-where). Hardly beta'd but hope it still works. Happy holidays everyone! :)

_Sleep,_ they had told her. _Just try._

But Kana’s eyes are wide open in the dark, and it feels like it’s been _days_ since Daddy and Papashi put her to bed. The bright red numbers on the clock next to her pillow are starting to sting. A lot.

11:57.

She’s tried to keep her eyes shut for minutes at a time but nothing works. She just can’t sleep with her heart pounding and pounding out of her chest.

_Santa’s coming!!!_

The words are screaming themselves hoarse in her head and she can’t focus on anything else.

_Santa’s. Coming._

In three more minutes, just _three more minutes,_ just _one hundred and eighty seconds,_ he’ll be here. She _has_ to stay up and see.

_1 Mississippi, 2 Mississippi, 3 Mississippi…_

Maybe she’ll even get to thank him for delivering presents — not just to her and her family but to the entire _universe_ because Santa’s that cool.

_10 Mississippi, 11 Mississippi, 12 Mississippi…_

She only needs to count to 60 three times in her head, at the exact slow place as how seconds pass.

_18 Mississippi, 19 Mississippi, 20 Mississippi—_

It’s taking too long. She sits up and stares at the clock again. 11:58.

_Close enough._

She throws the blankets off her legs and leaps out of bed, landing silent as a cat on the carpet. Tiptoeing to the door, Kana places her hand on the knob and slowly turns.

 

* * *

_  
// ten minutes earlier… //_

 

* * *

 

“Is the costume really necessary?” Keith asks, raising an eyebrow.

Shiro drops the bag of presents he’s holding at the base of the Christmas tree and straightens up to give his husband a pointed look.

“Come on. You told her not to stay up and wait for Santa,” he replies. “She’s going to stay up and wait for Santa.”

Keith rolls his eyes. “God, she never listens.”

Shiro chuckles and shakes his head, a familiar warmth rising inside his chest at Keith’s pout. “She gets it from you. You know that right?”

“What?” Keith starts. “I don’t—”

“Shh!” Shiro puts a finger to Keith’s lips and looks back towards the hallway where their bedrooms lie beyond. “She’ll hear us.”

“Whatever,” Keith grumbles under his breath. “It’s not like she’s not already awake and waiting for us to fall asleep.”

“It’s not about trying not to wake her. It’s—” Shiro pauses, then pulls the fake Santa beard back up to his face. “It’s about making her believe that she and Santa are the only ones awake at this hour.”

“ _You don’t even look like Santa,_ ” Keith hisses, poking him in the belly. “You just shoved a pillow under your shirt.”

Shiro lets out an offended gasp.

“You take that back,” he whispers.

“Or what?” Keith smirks, taking a step towards Shiro. He refuses to back down.

“Or Santa’s going to withhold your present,” Shiro says, crossing his arms.

“What am I, twelve?” Keith asks, lips tight from suppressed laughter.

“You’ll see,” Shiro sniffs, turning his head away from Keith. “Kana will believe it. You underestimate the power and magic of a four year old girl’s imagination.”

Keith rolls his eyes again, a sly smile playing on his lips.

“Well…” he leans in closer and pulls Shiro’s beard down past his lips. “Would you still withhold my present if I told you you make a hot Santa?”

“Wow,” Shiro breathes, nose inches away from Keith’s. “Even with this belly?”

“Eh,” Keith gives the pillow at his stomach a little squeeze.

“We can work with that,” he says, trailing a hand up to his chest.

And it’s amazing, Shiro reflects as Keith draws closer and closer, how even after years of being married, his mind still becomes foggy and muddled in the moments right before Keith leads him up to a kiss.

Closing his eyes, Shiro dips his head and leans in.

A door creaks beyond the hallway.

Eyes snapping open, Shiro turns towards the source of the sound: Kana’s awake. His cue to start.

He turns back to look at Keith, but Keith’s already hidden himself in the far corner behind the couch. Head peeking out, he puts a finger to his lips and winks at Shiro before ducking down and disappearing from sight.

With a grin, Shiro starts rummaging through the giant bag, taking out boxes of presents to put under the tree.

 

* * *

  
Doing her best to stay silent, Kana pushes the door open just a crack and sticks her nose out. She turns her head in both directions, then focuses in on the closed doors of her daddies’ bedroom. No sign of movement or sound from inside.

_The coast is clear._

She steals — down the carpeted hallway and along the edge close to the walls, passing framed photos and Christmas light decorations as she makes her way towards the living room. For the entire walk, she holds her breath and makes sure to stay on her tiptoes the whole way there.

She’s an expert at this. _They won’t hear a thing._

When she reaches the end of the hallway, she pauses behind the wall and takes a deep breath. Heart pounding loudly in her chest, she creeps slowly into view and peeks out into the living room.

Her heart stops. There in the dim light of the lit up Christmas tree stands a tall man dressed in a red coat, red hat, red pants, putting presents — _presents!!!_ — under the tree. The boxes are red, gold, and white, and they’re beautiful, absolutely beautiful.

Her breath catches as he hitches his giant gift bag back up over his shoulder and walks over towards the fireplace where a plate of cookies she and Papashi had baked earlier lie on the mantelpiece.

 _Eat my cookies!!_ she wants to scream, but she’s afraid to make a sound. If he could just eat even one single cookie, Santa would hopefully see through to her gratefulness.

Because now that she’s here, now that Santa is alive and real before her, she’s afraid to step out and thank him herself. She can’t explain it, but something tugs at her and whispers: _don’t ruin the magic._

So she stays quiet. Santa stops in front of the fireplace and drops a few extra goodies in her stocking. The cookies are _right!!! there!!!_ — if only he would just turn his head a little bit and _look!_

Santa pauses and turns to glance around at the entire room. Kana ducks her head back behind the wall, eyes peering right over the edge of the corner. After giving the area a onceover, he leans closer to the plate of cookies and — her heart races — picks one up.

And oh! — he’s eating it, he’s eating it. Santa is eating the cookie she made!

This is officially the best night of her life. Although Santa doesn’t see her, Kana can’t help but feel like they’ve just shared a special connection.

Santa stuffs the rest of the cookie into his mouth and turns back towards the tree. She starts to wonder, if she stays here and watches, would Santa stay too? Or would she witness him disappear?

Before she can get an answer, however, Santa turns his head in her direction and she lets out a little gasp, shrinking back completely behind the wall. Did he see her? Perhaps he did. Perhaps he knows she’s there and expects her to go to bed, otherwise he’ll take back her present for being a disobedient girl (Papashi’s words, not Santa’s).

She supposes it’s probably better to go back to bed, just in case.

She tiptoes back down the hallway, past her parents’ bedroom and towards her own. Once she’s at her door, Kana slips through the crack and starts to slowly pull it to a close.

 _“Nice job, Santa,”_ she hears someone say in a low voice.

Kana freezes, her door just barely ajar. Her heart pounds loudly in her chest.

There’s no doubt about it. It’s Daddy’s voice.

Her breath catches in her throat, fingers trembling on the doorknob.

_No way._

Both Daddy and Papashi had said they never talked to Santa before. Unless they were lying to her, she’s sure that Daddy just broke their own rule for the first time tonight and she’s about to catch him in the act.

The idea sends a rush of excitement through her. With a gentle poke, she pushes against her door and slips back out of her room.

“I almost believed it for myself,” she hears Daddy say. She can hear the laughter in his voice as Santa chuckles back.

Kana edges closer towards the wall she had been hiding behind before she hears him speak again.

“So… where were we?”

Poking her head around the corner, she looks out towards the living room and—

Her jaw drops. She can hardly believe her eyes. There in the middle of the living room, right beneath the mistletoe Papashi had put up two weeks ago, stands Daddy with his arms wrapped tightly around _Santa Claus._

She clamps a hand over her mouth to stop herself from shrieking with laughter. Daddy tilts his head up and leans in.

No.

Way.

 

* * *

 

Shiro wakes in the morning to shrill shouts of _“It’s Christmas, it’s Christmas!”_ reverberating off the walls through the entire house. Bleary eyed and half asleep, he lets out a groan and sinks his head further into his pillow as Keith shifts in his arms.

“Your cue,” Keith yawns, smacking his lips and burying his nose in Shiro’s chest.

“You’re not helping, you know,” Shiro mumbles sleepily as he threads his fingers through Keith’s hair.

“I know.” Keith gives Shiro’s torso a squeeze and smiles. “Any minute now and you won’t have a choice.”

And sure enough, the distant pitter patter of a child’s footsteps scrambles haphazardly towards their room, growing louder and louder until — _Boom!_ — Kana bursts through the door like a storm in all of her shameless and childlike glory.

“Daddy! Papashi! I saw Santa! _I saw Santa!_ ”

Shiro laughs as she pounces into bed and wriggles her way up until her head pokes out between them.

“Is that so?” Shiro asks innocently. “What was he like?”

“It was like _magic,_ ” she says, her eyes wide with wonder. “I saw him putting presents under the tree and in my stocking and he even ate my cookie like you said he would!”

Shiro looks over at Keith and feels his heart melt at the fond expression on Keith’s face.

“Wow. That’s really something, Kana,” Keith says, ruffling her hair. His shoulders are shaking slightly from suppressed laughter.

“It’s not just _something,_ ” she says, “it was the best night of my life! Can we open presents soon, Daddy? Pretty please? Now?”

“Breakfast first,” Shiro chuckles, propping himself up on his elbow.

“I already put cereal for us on the table now can we _please open presents now?_ ” she begs, tugging on Shiro’s shirt.

“Well that’s a first,” Shiro says. “Thank you for preparing breakfast, Kana.”

“ _Now?_ ” she demands, relentless.

“Alright, alright,” Shiro yawns, pushing himself up into a seated position. “I’m up.”

Shiro and Keith follow their daughter to the dining room where Kana, for the life of them all, cannot stay still. She’s rambling on and on about the cereal choices she made, about table placement etiquette, about Christmas magic, to the point where Shiro can hardly understand a word she’s saying. It’s too early for this. He doesn’t have any coffee in his system yet.

After brewing himself a kettle’s worth, Shiro re-enters the conversation with a mug of caffeine in his hand to find Kana raving about Santa again. Keith is merely nodding along to everything she’s saying while shoving spoonfuls of cereal in his mouth.

“But you know what the _best_ part of seeing Santa was?” she asks, turning her big, bright eyes onto Keith.

“Hmm?” Keith replies, his mouth full of milk. A glint of mischievous mirth flashes in her expression as she grins up at him. For a second, Shiro thinks he’s just imagined it, but then—

“Seeing you two kiss,” she blurts out.

Keith chokes on his cereal. Shiro nearly drops his cup of coffee. His grip tightens on the handle.

“You saw _what?_ ” Keith splutters, wiping sprayed milk off his face with the back of his hand while Shiro determinedly avoids his gaze. His cheeks heat up from the memory of last night — the romantic lighting from the Christmas tree beside them, the mistletoe hung above them, Keith’s eyes dark and full of desire, and—

No, it’s definitely too early for this, Shiro thinks as he clutches the edge of the counter behind him for support.

“I saw you kissing Santa Claus,” she repeats again without a single hint of shame. “Why are you acting weird? What does that mean?”

“N- _nothing,_ ” Keith assures, dropping his spoon onto the table. “I didn’t — It probably wasn’t what you thought—”

“Wow, I can’t believe you’d do that, Keith,” Shiro says, trying not to laugh. “Guess Santa was too attractive to resist.”

Keith glares at him over his bowl of unfinished cereal, his jaw clenched. Shiro knows he’ll pay for it later, but in the moment, he simply can’t resist teasing him.

“O. M. G,” Kana gasps, clapping her hands to her face. “Is Santa going to be my third daddy?”

Keith groans and hides his face in his hands. Through a tiny crack between his fingers, Shiro can see Keith’s eyes shooting him a look that threatens _Fix this, Shiro,_ **_or else_ ** _._

“No, honey, I was… joking. Santa isn’t going to be your daddy,” Shiro tells her calmly. “You probably just imagined it.”

“I didn’t though,” she insists proudly. “I saw it with my own two eyes. You should've been there. That would have been _hilarious_.”

“Well…” Shiro struggles with himself for a moment, unsure how to explain themselves. “Santa is a magical being. You can’t fully trust everything he shows you. Right, Keith?”

“No, you can’t trust him at all,” Keith says through gritted teeth, face still hidden behind his fingers.

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Kana deflates, looking gloomy. “I was hoping it meant we were moving to the North Pole.”

Keith lets his hands fall from his face and gives Shiro a pointed look that tells him _this is your fault._

Shiro grins sheepishly back at him before placing a comforting hand on Kana’s shoulder.

“Don’t worry,” he tells her. “You wouldn’t want to live there anyways.”

Kana looks thoughtfully back and forth between the two of them and sighs.

“Yeah, you’re right Papashi,” she says. Then, brightening up, she adds, “But I still think Daddy and Santa kissed.”

Keith rolls his eyes and returns to eating his cereal. Shiro shrugs and continues to smile.

She’ll understand when she’s older.

**Author's Note:**

> come say hello to me on [tumblr](https://flusteredkeith/tumblr.com) and/or [twitter](https://twitter.com/flusteredkeith)!


End file.
